LEPA AquaChanger 120 - HELP!

[kevindressel]

Hey all! I've searched around, and I couldn't find anything specifically addressing what I'm dealing with, so I'll try here (hoping that some of you kind, intelligent, folks will have an idea what's up!) Anyway, here goes:

I recently purchased the LEPA AquaChanger 120 to be used on an AMD FX-8370E AM3+ CPU. Following the directions, I installed the bracket and pump on the CPU, I installed the fan on the radiator and I plugged the power cables onto the motherboard. The pump seems to kick on (the red light goes on and I do hear something from the pump), and the fan works, but the CPU temperatures rise to unsafe levels (60 degrees Celsius at idle) within minutes forcing me to shut the computer off. I also tried running the pump using the 4-pin molex adapter directly off the power supply, as well as running it off a completely independent power supply (one that was external to the computer).

I was forced to replace the pump with a standard air cooler, and now the temperatures are being kept near 20 degrees Celsius at idle. I have to assume there is something wrong with the AquaChanger 120 cooler. I did use thermal paste between the copper plate on the pump and the top of the processor. Also, when I shake the radiator a bit, you can hear some sloshing, making me think the coolant has leaked out some (but, as far as I can tell, not since I opened it).

Also, just a side note....the air cooler is I got from Foxconn years ago to use with an AMD X2 CPU (it's slightly nicer than a stock heat sink / fan, but nothing to write home about), and it's doing a far better job than the water cooler. I've been running prime95 on all 8 cores for a little while, and the reported cpu temps are sitting around 35 degrees Celcius.

So, with all of this said, any ideas out there? I'm going to keep with the air cooler for now, but I want to get the water cooler working if for no other reason than I paid a small premium for it!

 

[Stuka87]

What kind of heat sink compound were you using? Does it come with some already on it?

It sounds like either the pump did not make good contact with the CPU, or it is defective.

 

[kevindressel]

The thermal compound was Arctic Silver Arctic Alumina (ceramic based stuff). I considered that as a possibility until I used the same stuff for the air cooler, and it worked fine.

I will say (as many others have as well) that installation of the pump on the cpu was a challenge, but it sure seemed to be making good contact. I guess a visual doesn't tell the whole story, but it seemed at least as tight to the cpu as the current air cooled heat sink.

I'm guessing it's defective as you suggest....but since this was my first experience with water coolers, I thought I might have been screwing something up.

 

[MrTeal]

The thermal compound was Arctic Silver Arctic Alumina (ceramic based stuff). I considered that as a possibility until I used the same stuff for the air cooler, and it worked fine.

I will say (as many others have as well) that installation of the pump on the cpu was a challenge, but it sure seemed to be making good contact. I guess a visual doesn't tell the whole story, but it seemed at least as tight to the cpu as the current air cooled heat sink.

I'm guessing it's defective as you suggest....but since this was my first experience with water coolers, I thought I might have been screwing something up.

Sounds like a defective pump. If you can see the fans moving, you should idle a lot lower than that.

I'm more amazed that your basic Foxconn cooler nets you 35C under P95 loads. I would just keep using that.

 

[kevindressel]

I'm more amazed that your basic Foxconn cooler nets you 35C under P95 loads. I would just keep using that.

Yeah, so was I. I'm using HWMonitor to report temps, and for the FX-8370E, they are pretty low at idle, and mid-30s to low-40s (Celcius) at full load. It'll vary some based on the turbo clocking, etc. I think I saw a peak temp around 48 Celcius at one point, but that wasn't the usual.

But, I'm still curious about the water cooler, so I might play around with it some. Is there a way to test these things without placing it on the cpu?